As she started to run, Scotty stumbled. She turned to help him up. “Come on.” She started running again.
“My shoe.”
Becky Lee glanced back and saw Scotty’s shoe in the alley where he’d stumbled. No time to get it. They needed to hide.
They raced to the end of the alley, and she tucked Scotty behind the crates and put herself in front of him, crouching low, hoping the man would run right past the alley.
She tried to settle her breath and listen. She pressed her finger to her lips for Scotty to remain perfectly still. Footsteps echoed in the alley.
He’d found them.
Her heart pounded so hard in her chest it was a wonder the man couldn’t hear it. He slowly made his way down the alley. She looked through a tiny slit between the crates and saw the man lean down and pick up Scotty’s shoe.
“You can come out now. There’s nowhere to run.”
His footsteps came closer.
She had to think of something. There was no way she was letting the man take her and Scotty again. She watched him approach the stack of crates through the slit. Right as he got close she stood up and pushed on the stack of crates with all her might. They tumbled down on the man in a loud crash of splintering wood and shattering glass.
Scotty screamed.
She grabbed his hand and raced past the jumbled mess, hoping the man was pinned to the ground, or that it at least slowed him down and gave them time to find another place to hide.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Cal heard Scotty scream. He broke into a full-out run in the direction of the scream, gasping for breath as he sprinted toward the noise. He had to get there. Protect them.
Just then he saw Becky Lee and Scotty come running around the corner. Becky Lee looked up and saw him. The relief was clear on her face as she raced towards him. His heart leapt in his chest, just at seeing them alive.
Becky Lee ran straight into his arms and he held her close while scooping up Scotty at the same time.
“We…. have… to run. He’s after us.” Becky Lee gasped each word.
Cal took a quick look around. “Over here.” He pulled her into a doorway and grabbed his phone and started tapping in the agent’s number. Before he could finish he saw two agents round the corner at full speed. He stepped out of the doorway and they ran over to him.
“In that alley.” Becky Lee pointed. “I toppled crates on top of the guy chasing us.”
“Stay here,” the agent ordered them.
Cal had no intention of going anywhere. He set Scotty down and looked him over from head to toe. “Are you okay?”
“Yep, but I lost-ed my shoe.”
Cal was sure the way Scotty always added the extra syllable to lost was the most heart-wrenchingly adorable thing he’d ever heard. He looked down at the boy’s feet. “Well, you sure did.”
“You should have seen Aunt Becky. She saved us. We climbed out of a window. It was way high.” Scotty flung his arm up. “But we made a tower and got out. Then we ran. But this guy chased us. So we hid behind this stuff in the alley. Then Aunt Becky pushed the stuff over on the man and smashed him.”
Cal looked at Becky Lee., then at Scotty. He closed his eyes for a moment and opened them to make sure he wasn’t dreaming, and they were both still standing there. He looked up at the sky and let out a huge breath.
Thanks for the help, TJ.
He looked at these two standing before him. They were his whole world. The ferocity of his emotions rocked him to his very core.
He loved them.
He loved Becky Lee.
He wasn’t sure his legs could hold him any longer. The fear, the anger at his father, the relief at finding Becky Lee and Scotty—and the sure knowledge that he was in love with Becky Lee—overwhelmed him.
He sank down on the step in the doorway and pulled Scotty and Becky Lee down beside him, tucking them both close to his side.
~ * ~
Cal sat with Scotty sheltered against his left side, and Becky Lee on his right. Scotty had his arms wrapped around Cal’s arm, and Becky Lee had her hand resting on his knee.
The lead agent appeared in front of them. “We got the other kidnapper. He was just crawling out from under the crates. You’re a very lucky woman.”
“It wasn’t luck so much as my sister was watching over us.” Becky Lee eyed the agent with a look that dared him to doubt her.
“It appears your aunt is lucky now, too. With Luca arrested, the last of the Abelli family will be behind bars. They had a lot of enemies but hadn’t made any alliances with other… families… in the last ten years or so. I’m thinking it’s probably time for your aunt to come out of witness protection.”
“Really?” Becky Lee jumped up. “She’s free to come home?”